


Thicker Than

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
Genre: Elements of Star Wars Legends, Family Issues, Gen, Missing Scene, POV Luke Skywalker, Post-Movie(s), Post-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 18:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12138420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Mon Mothma is the first person whom Luke tells the truth of his parentage(Or, families are tough, but the Rebel Alliance has their people's backs)





	Thicker Than

**Author's Note:**

> Eons ago, I read a story where High Command learned about Luke's parentage and kicked him out of the Rebel Alliance. Obviously, I'm still upset about it.
> 
> Lieda and Jobin are Mon Mothma's children from Star Wars Legends. I don’t know if they're canon now or not. Not that they were super-canonical before. Jobin only appeared in one comic (where he died), and Lieda never physically appeared at all.

Space was limited on  _Home One,_ so High Command shared one small office and kept set hours to do their work.

Luke waited until it was Mon Mothma in the office before making his way there.

She was the highest ranking civilian authority on the ship, and for that reason he hoped that she might be more forgiving than a general or admiral. 

The generals and admirals had excused his desertion after the Battle of Hoth because of what happened at Bespin and because Leia vouched for him, but they hadn't forgiven him yet.

Mon hadn't said anything one way or another on the subject, though, and she had more cause to judge him than most.

Luke steeled himself before knocking on the door.

"Enter!" Mon Mothma called.

The door slid open.

The chancellor was not alone. Her daughter sat in the window seat, looking out the viewport at distant stars, while her mother worked at the desk.

Both looked over when Luke entered the room.

"Good afternoon, Commander Skywalker," Mon said, setting aside her work.

Lieda snorted.

"Good afternoon, Chancellor Mothma. Captain Mothma."

"Skywalker."

Lieda's coldness did not hurt him. He had faced that icy civility already from his friends, and Lieda Mothma was not one of his friends.

It did intimidate him a little. Lieda was a more impressive figure than Wedge Antilles. She was taller than he was, after all, _and_ she was a member of Alliance Intelligence with a habit of disappearing for weeks or months on end to locations so secret Luke never heard _rumors_ about her missions.

He hadn't known Lieda was back. He wouldn't have bothered Mon if he had known she was with her only surviving child.

"I'll leave you to your business, then, Mother," Lieda said as she got to her feet.

"Will I see you at supper?"

Lieda shrugged. "Maybe."

Mon pressed her lips together.

They looked very much alike, this mother and daughter. Both were tall and slender women with red hair, sharp features, and Received Pronunciation accents. Mon continued to dress in senatorial white, one of the many symbols of defiance on _Home One_ , and today Lieda wore a white shirt with her gray trousers and her black blaster in its brown holster.

Luke wondered if Lieda reveled in the resemblance or if it pained her. He understood both points of view now.

Jobin hadn't looked like his mother and sister. He had been dark-haired and dark-eyed like his father.

"Before you go," Luke said abruptly as Lieda moved past him, "I wanted to say... I was very sorry to hear of Jobin's death. He was a good friend and a good soldier."

Lieda stared at him. "He was a better brother," she snapped. The door slid closed behind her.

Mon acted as though her daughter hadn't spoken, or she hadn’t been there at all. "Thank you," she said in her firm and gentle voice. "Jobin was a great loss to our family and to the Rebellion. We lost many soldiers at Hoth."

Luke felt the dagger as surely as he would have had Wedge said, "We lost many soldiers at Hoth," in that stiff way he said everything to Luke nowadays.

Luke strived to ignore it. At Mon's gesture, he sat down.

"What brings you to my office?" Mon asked.

Luke hesitated. "It's about my report, ma'am. The report I gave in the medcenter? I didn’t lie, but I left something out... I was afraid of what High Command would think if they knew, but uh, I think they, _you_ , need to know. I want my report altered, ma'am."

He felt like the idiot farm boy everyone treated him as, but Mon didn't sneer or roll her eyes. She only nodded once and said, "If you think it necessary."

She said nothing more, only waited with that expressionless politician's mask she brought out during meetings.

"It's about my duel with Vader," he began. He stopped.

"Countless Jedi have lost duels against Darth Vader, Luke. You have no cause for shame."

"That's not why I kept quiet."

Again, she was silent as she waited for him.

"During the duel... after I lost... Darth Vader told me something. He said that he was my father."

Mon blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Darth Vader is my father," Luke said. He had thought it many times, in disbelief, since Bespin, but he had never said it aloud before.

Mon looked disbelieving too.

"Are you certain he told you the truth?"

"Yes. I knew it was true the second he said it. I wish I had doubts."

"Darth Vader... is Anakin Skywalker?"

Luke nodded in confirmation.

"That is fantastical."

Mon shook her head as if to dislodge the thought, then held up a hand to forestall the protests Luke couldn’t make. It _was_ fantastical.

"I do not doubt your word or your instincts, Luke. It is only... I knew Anakin Skywalker. Not well, but we met several times during the Clone Wars. To think that he became an enemy... the iron fist of Sheev Palpatine..."

Luke looked away. "I thought High Command should know," he murmured, awaiting the moment her hawkish stare turned on him.

"Why?"

"What?"

Her blue eyes were keen and piercing, but not disdainful. "Why do you think High Command needs to know so desperately? Truthfully, it changes little. We always knew Darth Vader was a former Jedi. Whether he is Anakin Skywalker or another knight, the treason remains."

Luke had always considered Mon an exceptionally intelligent being.

"Because he’s my father?"

Mon shrugged. "Many in the Alliance have relatives who serve the Empire. Many served the Empire themselves in the past."

His eyes flashed. "Darth Vader isn't the same as — Wes's cousin Larik!"

"No, but the principle remains. If we rejected all those with imperial connections, the only person on this ship would be Carlist Rieekan."

Luke breathed deeply. "Yes, but... Bespin was a trap for me. He might try again."

"He certainly will. Over the past twenty-two years, the Rebellion has worked with several Jedi who had escaped the Purge. We lost every one to Vader's traps."

Luke swallowed.  _Darth Vader killed all the Jedi._ He had heard it said a million times, in a million ways, since the Battle of Yavin.

_Your father killed all the Jedi. He killed Ben right before your eyes._

"And then there's my command —"

"Admiral Ackbar was very clear on that score, I'm afraid. You aren't to enter a cockpit until he knows you won’t go running after rumors of Quinlan Vos on a whim."

"That isn't what I meant."

Mon considered him. "Luke, I trust you now just as much as I did when you knocked on that door. Any hesitation anyone expresses upon learning this secret will tell you more about them than you, and even so... it will pass quickly among your friends. Even those who give you the cold shoulder now will warm to you when they discover the trauma of what happened on Bespin."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"They’re here, aren't they? Everyone aboard this ship knows what it is to be hated and hunted. I have faith in their compassion. Don’t you?"

"I do, I really do, but —"

"On another note," she cut him short, "please find more reliable proof of this connection before you tell Dodonna. He will not trust Vader's word and your feelings on the matter."

He grinned weakly. "I hoped you would tell him? And the others?"

"I couldn't. It is your story to tell."


End file.
